Posts in "Snowden"

The new YAL chapter at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is over a month old now and I and four other members are excited to attend the Chicago Spring Summit this Saturday! Through word of mouth, we have grown to have seven dues-paying members at this point, and we're looking forward to continuing to grow. So far, we've had four chapter meetings, done officer elections, and had two officer meetings.

To kick off the social side of our chapter, we decided to have a movie night! On Friday night (02/03/2017), we had a showing of the Snowden movie. We took advantage of a cozy location on campus known as the Percopo theater, which has a projector as well as about five couches on a platform that makes it theater-like. We also got pizza, chips, and soda. This movie was great and helped us better understand what Snowden did for our country.

Thanks to our Events Coordinator, Josiah Argo, the University of Iowa YAL chapter won second place at this past summer's YALCON activism event contest within our region. We planned on doing a chapter bonding event with our winnings and decided the end of the semester was the perfect time to do this. We rented out a room at our main library and had a showing of the Snowden movie, ordered some food, and gave our members a much needed study break. This sparked great conversation about government oversight, and our civil liberties.

This event would have never been possible if we hadn't tried our best during the YALCON regional break out sessions. I would encourage all chapters to go to YALCON together, and participate in all of the events!

Though our Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Lindenwood typically has meetings on Tuesday evenings, for September 20th we all agreed on doing something different! A group of us carpooled off of campus to a local movie theater the first Tuesday after the Snowden movie came out so that we could all view the movie as a chapter!

A group of eleven Lindenwood students, eight members of our chapter and then three other students who had decided they wanted to join us gathered into a couple rows in the movie theater, ready to see the live-action presentation of Snowden's story!

Though nearly all of us were already very familiar with Edward Snowden's story, after the showing we all agreed that it was sobering to see the story played out for us on the big screen. The "based on a true story" screen seemed all too real for us sitting in the movie theater, and put things into perspective. Personally, when the screen flashed up with the actual dates, I had chills. The movie put into perspective how serious the issues that Snowden informed the public about really are, and reminded us all how it is often times our own duty as citizens to make sure that our liberty is being protected!

On September 14th at 7:30PM Ursinus' YAL chapter took a field trip to see the early release of the Snowden Movie. We took 3 car loads of people to see the movie. Our chapter held a screening for CitizenFour in the past, so we thought going to see Oliver Stone's depiction of Snowden would be a great follow up. The movie was definitely different than CitizenFour because we got to meet Ed's girlfriend, and many other important people people that influenced him. The movie was followed up with a Live Q&A with Edward Snowden, Oliver Stone, and the some of the cast. We definitely learned a great amount from the movie and the live Q&A. Attending this movie with a YAL chapter definitely builds chemistry among the members and provides an entertaining experience!

The YAL chapter at Arizona State's latest event was our “Snowden” movie night. I got inspired to do this this when I realized that the movie was to come out in the middle of September, and I immediately thought that this would be a wonderful way to recruit new members. By using money that I was able to acquire from my school, I knew that we could have a night at the movies in order to get people interested in the club. The money that Arizona State gave to my organization allowed me to pay for the movie tickets for everyone that attended.

We tabled for our event on the Monday and Wednesday of the week of our event. I wanted to advertise this event as much as I could. I made posters and sent out an announcement on the Barrett Honors digest. This is an email system used by the Barrett Honors College to send out announcements regarding certain events for our school. Different clubs use this to advertise meetings for their organization. Once I sent that out letting people know that we would be paying the tickets of the first 45 people to RSVP, I instantly got a swarm of emails and text messages for people wanting to attend. This went on for the whole day.

That week was one of the most stressful weeks I ever went through, but it was worth it. Now Young Americans for Liberty at Arizona State has many more potential members. Right before I handed out people’s tickets, I made some announcements letting people know when our next meeting would be. All in all, I thought this event went as wonderfully as it could. I was able to draw more attention to YAL and got a lot of potentially new liberty-minded folks. I recently just sent out announcements for our follow-up meeting, “The Evil of the National Security State” and we know we will have plenty of new members to learn about liberty.

Exactly two weeks ago, Young Americans for Liberty at Arizona State University published an open letter to ASU President Michael Crow condemning the university's continuing support of the out-of-control National Security Agency and calling for an end to the school's relationship with the agency. The letter was signed by four other student organizations, including the ASU College Republicans and the Green Party of ASU. Soon after, we put a petition on Change.org, asking ASU students and alums, concerned Arizonans, and anyone else sympathetic to our cause to join us.

The response was incredible. As of now, we have 400 signatures on our petition, almost all of which come from residents of Arizona. Our efforts have already been covered in the university newspaper and on the OffNow.org blog, and we expect even more coverage this week. On Wednesday, we're holding a demonstration in the university's most busy area. There will be signs, signatures for the petition will be collected, brochures will be distributed, and students from all political backgrounds will be invited to stand up for their right to privacy.